NHS chiefs are braced for nine million patients on waiting lists by the end of the year while the health secretary has warned that it could go as high as 13 million.
Sajid Javid said that the figure had “focused my mind” on a backlog of routine care that would be one of his main priorities.
Senior doctors warned, however, that the decision to lift all restrictions meant that clearing the cases would become harder as hospitals had to treat more Covid-19 patients.
NHS England insists that it is ahead of schedule on shifting the backlog. The service promised last week to pay hospitals 20 per cent extra if they exceeded pre-pandemic levels of routine treatment.
Pauline Philip, national director of emergency and elective care,
